Times of Woe

Celestia stared down from the battlement. All was as it always had been. The busy streets below her, filled with ponyfolk from all over, coming to share their labors in the pursuit of a better life for all.

She sighed.

It was trying circumstances indeed for her. She had just received word that her sister was coming back from the Parasprite Crusade. It left her scared and worried but near breathless to hear of her sister’s return.

They hadn’t spoken to each other since that day…

“Cele! I can take care of myself!”

“No, you can’t!”

Scrolls were flung across the room. It seemed like the day would last forever with just them fighting. One sister telling the other that she shouldn’t go. The other saying that it was all she had to look forward to.

Their great father had gifted them with the kingdom upon his death. Timeotheus was a beloved leader, but he lived in an age where monsters roamed around and ponies were scattered to the winds. Celestia and Luna were told to rule equally, but Celestia was the oldest and the one that showed the most promise. Their tutor loved them both equally for both their faults and their abilities, but the ponyfolk could only see the greatness of the one.

Driving the younger pony to despair, they knew not what they were doing.

“All you wanted to do…” Celestia began to say to herself.

***

There was a bustle in the street. A crash of carts that resounded through the marketplace. One pony was absentmindedly reviewing a scroll she was levitating in front of her, while a caged bear was being wheeled out into the road.

“Ach, whatchit why donya?!!” an angry fellow muttered. He levitated his cage back in place on his wagon. But the damage had already been done in a domino effect down the street.

This was one of the main thoroughfares across great Cantermost City. Hundreds of ponies would travel across it before noon even tolled out on the great clock at the castle.

The scholarly unicorn looked around her scroll in a bit of confusion. She looked at the angry stallion and then turned toward the other dazed and irritable ponies. She apologized, magically righted everyone’s carts, and quickly teleported away.

It wasn’t her usual route home. But today she had gone to visit the monastery and collect new scrolls.

The monastery was by the sea. Even though the ponyfolk living there professed that they gave up all worldly possessions, it seemed like they controlled the harbor and the commerce going on around it. But this unicorn didn’t want to deal with it today. She had a busy week ahead of her.

She needed to go to the monastery to gain access to the newest scrolls from exotic lands. New historical, biological, and cultural knowledge that the monastery ponyfolk would carefully catalog and record in their scrolls.

Maybe, it was to see her brother, too…

But her Master wouldn’t be pleased about it.

She looked toward the great clock at the castle. It was nearing two in the afternoon. She couldn’t teleport all the way home, but she was only three streets away. She dashed with all her strength in that direction.

***
“Twilight!!” a very white and very posh unicorn called out.

“Yes, Master Rarity.”

“Did you get me the scrolls I needed on the latest fashion trends in Prance?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Twilight shuffled around in her bag and pulled out the scroll.

“I can’t believe I was this close to being late on the game on this one. The ambassadors could have had my head!”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Oh, and Twilight,” Rarity called out as that unicorn shuffled her bag back around, “did you happen to see a certain somepony?”

Twilight looked forward with a straight face. The other seamsponies in the shop around them could feel the tension in the air and slightly hesitated with the suspense. One almost dropped her spools.

“No...ma’am.”

“Good, darling. Now you’re dismissed.”

With a hmph, the Master pony trotted off to inspect her workers. Twilight gave a noiseless sigh of relief and trotted up to her room.

She lived in the attic of her Master’s shop. It was a small room at the top of the servant’s staircase. She hadn’t been living here long, so it still didn’t feel very homey, as cozy as it was. It would have been entirely dark and lonely, except for a tiny window above her bed and a small fireplace in the far corner. She had her wooden table against the other wall. It had a lightstand and a few parchments on it.

Twilight missed the days when she had been apprenticing under the blacksmith. Although she wasn’t able to handle the hard labor, sometimes it was easier to cope with a kind master than the one she was under now. Still, she moved to this one because the stallion blacksmith had to leave town, and her current Master was the only other pony who had royal connections and was looking for an apprentice.

“Just a little bit longer…”

As she plopped onto her bed and looked at the light shining in from her window, she thought about her dream.

It would be great. She’d be an apprentice or secretary to the great Her Majesty Queen Celestia or Her Highness Cadance, though she preferred to work under Queen Celestia. Queen Cadance was the ruler of an allied nation, so Twilight figured she may have to meet up with and handle the servant ponies under her, too.

But Twilight’s dream was to work in the castle.

Her older brother had once worked in the castle with her and her mother. Their father had died sometime before, but Twilight could still remember working with her mother making apple pies in the royal kitchens.

But soon after her brother joined the great Parasprite Crusade, her mother died of grief, though, now that Twilight had been studying more on known diseases, it could have been consumption.

Twilight had a younger brother, but…

There was a knock on her door.

“One more thing, darling, I need you to go to the market and pick up the velvet material at the craft stalls.”

“Yes, ma’am.”